In recent years, in an inspection room of a hospital, the automation of manual labor in inspection work has been advanced for the purpose of improving work efficiency and preventing the mix-up of a specimen and the infection of a worker. In order to introduce an automatic analysis apparatus and to realize pre-processing (centrifugation, an unplugging process, a dispensing process, and the like) and post-processing (a plugging process, the storage of a specimen, and the like) which occupy the majority of an inspection work time, and the automation of a specimen analysis process, a system related to the pre-processing and transportation of a specimen (hereinafter, a specimen transport system) has been invented and released in the market.
In general, a specimen transport system has a structure in which a specimen processing system performing the pre-processing and post-processing of a specimen and an analysis system analyzing a specimen are connected to each other by a transport unit. In the specimen processing system, a plurality of units having various functions are disposed along the transport line. In general, the specimen processing system is configured such that a specimen is injected from an injection unit which is disposed upstream of the transport line, the specimen is processed in the units disposed along the transport line, and the processed specimen is stored in a storage unit on the most downstream side. Meanwhile, the specimen processing system may be divided into systems different from each other during a pre-processing process and a post-processing process, and the specimen processing system and the analysis system may be directly connected to each other.
For example, PTL 1 discloses a system in which a dispensing unit is disposed at the end thereof, a transport line which moves backward against a transport line from an injection unit to the dispensing unit is provided, and a specimen processed and stored in the dispensing unit is transported in an upstream direction by the transport line moving backward.